International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 5, Issue 12, December 2015 446 ISSN 2250-3153
Comparison of File transfer protocols and using Android to access files on Desktop Wirelessly
Aditya Kothari, Tejal Gath, Mitali Gadam, Shubhay Kadam
MITCOE, Pune, Department of Computer Science & Engineering
Abstract- The popularity of wireless services is increasing in the application certain functions are implemented like wake on LAN recent years, especially accessing contents on another machine (WOL) through which we can switch on the computer. remotely. There are many applications for the purpose. Application like ES file explorer uses smb protocol for file transfer which is less secure and has performance issues. We II. LITERATURE SURVEY propose to use an enhanced protocol for file sharing considering While researching as to on which platform or rather operating security, speed of transfer, performance and few other system the idea has to be modeled ,we selected android due to parameters. In this project, we propose a software that will help following factors: Android is an open source platform. Supports us access the files on Linux applications and that will also multifunction Consists of a lot of usable libraries.. Through the control various desktop services wirelessly. With this the need to survey we came across various papers which provided remote actually change file sharing permissions every time is also access to a single computer. Also, presently in the android minimized by using wireless execution of sharing commands. market we have applications which can access the PC using the phone as if we were actually using the PC i.e. PC mirroring. Index Terms- Android application, Client, Server, Sharing, Files Some examples include, TeamViewer, LogMeIn, Chrome Remote Desktop etc. While going through all the similar applications, we felt that no application in the market could I. INTRODUCTION provide the user to wake up the computer and al so provide file nitially phones were used only for calling and performing access services all in one application. This was one of the Ibasic activities like text messaging. However, today the view drawbacks of the applications that are present in the android has changed. Today, smartphones are evolving. Everything market. Keeping this drawback in consideration, we decided to including bank transactions, social connectivity etc we are using develop an application which can help the user to remotely smartphones. A lot of data is also being generated, be it personal control access to all the files on all the computers that he has images or office documents. All these are usually stored on one’s registered through his android phone. Also we focus WOL(Wake personal computer or a hard-drive Our project aims on providing On LAN) which can be done using certain operating system the user with the ability to gain access to these files from calls. What the previously developed applications lack, we focus anywhere using a smartphones without actually using a wired on those areas to that will give a UI rich and easy to use connector to transfer files. Also file transfer can take place application. between the mobile and the computer. Problems associated with a user being away from his office or personal computer are also Protocols that can be used we studied and a chart based on considered. The application will work only if the Android phone studies was made. is above version 2.3. To manage and control the data of the computers while in Three important points to be considered are: office is simple. But, while you are away from office/home, how • Encryption - Is it necessary that the protocol is will you control/access the data on your systems drive? Instead encrypted or can we trust LAN? (FTP is not encrypted, of depending on third party cloud services, one can always have SSH/SFTP/SCP is) your cell phone do the job. The basic idea behind our project is to • File transfer Size. (SCP is really slow compared to SMB provide the user with an Android application that helps one to in Gigabit networks! Google benchmarks if you are connect to the computers while he/she is away from his desk and interested.) also get access to files on the system with easy. The computers • Necessary to keep the file permissions of the files are connected using their IP Addresses either over the internet or transferred?[2]. on the same LAN. All the systems which are on the network are scanned and respective system is connected using appropriate Speed and Performance Tests login details. In case of remote access, IP address and MAC First factor to be considered is Speed of Transfer and Load details need to be saved by the user beforehand so that the system on the Systems. Tests were done using the following can be pinged to wake up and files can be accessed. configuration, The user’s request will be sent to the system via LAN or the • Linux system: Ubuntu / Intel 2.8Ghz, 2GB Memory / internet and the system then responds accordingly and the Configured with NFS to export a folder. resulting files are sent to the Android phone. Through our
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• Windows: XP Pro / Intel 2.8Ghz, 2GB Memory / Using top, the average load average was monitored, and the time Configured with shared folder. (in minutes) was determined using the time command. The • Network: Computers on 100baseT, OSD connected to transfer rate was determined by the files size divided by the total 802.11G wifi. time (in seconds). • FTP from the linux server utilized curl FTP (w/FUSE) to mount ftp to the OSD running bftpd. Conclusion of the tests: • SSH from the linux server utilized SSHFS (w/FUSE) to • SSH is fine as an alternative for telnet, but transferring mount sftp to the OSD running drop bear. files through it is comparitively slow. • For transferring files to the OSD from a computer, ftp appears to be the quickest. READ (From OSD) • The fastest transfer rates from the OSD to/from a Protocol Load Avg Minutes Xfr Rate computer are using NFS to a Linux system, but it does ssh 4.15 6:38 250 KB/s take a lot more of OSD resource[3].
ftp 3.97 3:38 360 KB/s Comparison of Protocols nfs 5.9 2:51 580 KB/s SSH is fairly tolerant of security devices like firewalls and samba 4.4 3:34 460 KB/s handling NAT. FTP is famously tricky to firewall, and generally requires one end-point to have a real IP address (i.e. no cifs 4.6 3:37 460 KB/s NAT).SSH is better at handling NAT. In fact, both end points
can be using NAT which is generally not possible without a lot Fig 1: Read Speed Comparisons of workaround with FTP.FTP is faster protocol because of its
very nature, though the right versions of SFTP can match that WRITE (To OSD) level of speed. FTP support is built into most of the browsers, where none have SSH. However there are plugins for this. SSH Load Avg Minutes Xfr Rate Transfer To/From is vastly more secure, which also allows user authentication. FTP 210 does this but over plain text. 3.7 7:40 KB/s Linux <> OSD NFS is perhaps best for more 'permanent' network mounted 420 shares such as /home directories or usually accessed shared 4.14 3:55 KB/s Linux <> OSD resources. If you want a network file share that anonymous users 500 can easily connect to, Samba is always considered first. This is 5 3:17 KB/s OSD <> Linux because utilities exist more easily across old and proprietary 380 operating systems to temporarily mount and detach from Samba 5.01 4:22 KB/s OSD <> Linux shares. However Samba is not at all a secure protocol. The data 360 isn't encrypted over the transmission [4]. 5.05 4:39 KB/s OSD <> Windows When comparing FTPs and SFTP, both available with strong authentication options. However since SFTP is much easier to Fig 2: Write Speed Comparisons get through firewalls, and there is an increasing percentage of trading partners adopting SFTP, SFTP is more suited for our A 100Mb file was written to/from the OSD in all cases. architecture.
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Table 1. Protocol Comparison on certain parameters
Username and Protocol Authentication Data Encryption password Implementation Platform Firewall friendly Encryption
Need kernel Support on Windows + NFS User id and password No No Less android or and root. Unix
Available Installable as command SCP User id and password yes yes default on Less line Utility on Linux Linux OS
Installable as command Windows + FTP User id and password No yes Less line Utility on Linux Unix
User id and password. Can Default on Linux Machines Default on SFTP use Public and Private Key yes yes along with SSH. Allows Yes Linux OS as well directory listing also
User id and password. Can Installable as command Default with FTPs use Public and Private Key yes yes Less line Utility on Linux SSH as well
Default on SMB/CIFS User id and password No No Easy Less Windows
Since, considering speed NFS is the fastest followed by FTP, • It can boot your system from a completely shut down and there are implementation complexities with NFS we consider state.[5] using FTP. • Wake-on-LAN can wake your computer from a SFTP gives additional security features over FTP including hibernated or sleeping state. If you're working in encryption of Payload as well as login details and also comes Windows, you may need to make some changes to your shipped in default with the Linux OS, SFTP seems the best BIOS before you start using the feature. Once your option for current needs. BIOS is updated, you need to find and adjust a few OS settings to allow you to wake up your computer using Wake-On-LAN the Wake-on-LAN feature.[6] Wake on LAN (WOL) is a standard that helps you to turn on a computer from another location over a network connection or Wake-On-Lan doesn't require any installation or extra Internet .The only things you should know are IP address of system dll files. All you need to do is enable Wake up on magic remote computer and it's MAC address[5].Wake-on-LAN is a packet in your Network card’s settings accessible through device standard to set up and use on your local network, and with a little manager setting in Windows. In order to start using it, simple run input details you can set it up so you can wake your computer the exe or use some specified sites. away from any part of the world using a smartphone or another Initially you need to scan the network and collect the MAC internet enabled system.[6]. This utility allows you to addresses/computer names/IP addresses on your network. If a conveniently turn on one or more computers remotely by sending computer doesn’t show up in the scan process, you can manually Wake-on-LAN (WOL) magic packet to the remote computers. enter the details like IP address and MAC address that helps Once turned on, Wake-On-Lan allows you to scan your network, identify you system on the network. Once system is found, the and gather the MAC addresses of all your computers, and save application just needs to send the magic packet on the receipt of the machine information into a separate file. Later, when your which the network card helps turn-on on your pc without actually computers are put to sleep or in standby mode, you can use the pressing the power key. file to easily choose the computer you want to turn on, and then The necessary conditions for Wake on LAN to work are, that turn on all these computers with a single push. the BIOS settings have been changed and the computer is either Wake-On-Lan also allows you to switch on a system from put in sleep mode or hibernate state. While certain users may command-line, by specifying the computer user name, IP worry about power consumption and wastage of power by address, or the MAC address of the remote network card[7] putting the system in hibernate mode, here is a comparison of The Wake-on-LAN feature can work in a couple of ways as- various SLEEP states of a system.
www.ijsrp.org International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 5, Issue 12, December 2015 449 ISSN 2250-3153
Shutdown (S5) Hibernate (S4) Sleep (S3) Off, except for trickle current Off, except for trickle current Less consumption. Processor Power consumption to devices such as the power to devices such as the power is Off button button & similar devices Boot is required upon System restarts from the saved Software resumption YES awakening. hibernate file
Hardware latency Long and undefined Long and undefined Almost 2 Sec.
Only system memory is None retained in hardware. retained. CPU context, cache The system writes an image of System hardware context None retained. contents, and chipset context memory in the hibernate file are lost. before powering down.
WOL Supported No Yes Yes
Fig.3. Sleep State Comparison
As hibernate has negligible power consumption as compared to shut down, we ultimately choose hibernate state of III. FUTURE SCOPE both as Wake-On-Lan does not work in shut down state. The android application provides you with the ease of accessing ARCHITECTURE the files on your desktop, however it can also be extended to access the different services on your PC without physically connecting to it.
IV. CONCLUSION After studying on certain parameters, it is identified that SFTP is the best suited for the needs of the application. Hence a wireless system to control the files on your Computer from an Android phone is proposed and appropriate protocols have been compared and used.
REFERENCES [1] Shubham Bidya, Nikhil Sonawane, Nandkishor Shegokar, Prashank Bhosale and Anisaara Nadap, WITNESS ANDROID CONTROLLING Fig 3. Architecture REMOTE PC, published in International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering, Volume 4, Issue 2, February The diagram above depicts the complete setup of accessing 2014. files on desktop using android. The three main components in [2] "Sharing files in LAN through Samba or SSH" available at: http://askubuntu.com/questions/96849/sharing-files-in-lan-through-samba- this architecture are- or-ssh. • Android phone [3] "NFS vs SMB vs FTP vs SSH speed test results" available at: • Personal Computer http://wdtvforum.com/main/index.php?topic=5393.0 • Wireless Access Pont [4] "Cleo protocol comparison guide" available at: https://www.cleo.com/documents/protocol_comparison_guide.pdf The android phone here is client from where the actual [5] "Wake on Lan" available at: http://wakeonlan.me/ process starts. It has a application where you need to enter the [6] "Access Your Computer Anytime and Save Energy with Wake-on- LAN":http://lifehacker.com/348197/access-your-computer-anytime-and- MAC address and IP address and then you get a list of all save-energy-with-wake-on-lan available PC's. We just need to select the required PC to get [7] "Start using wake-on-lan" available at: connected. http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wake_on_lan.html. Once the connection is established you can access the PC and perform required operations. AUTHORS First Author – Aditya Kothari, MITCOE, Pune, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, [email protected]
www.ijsrp.org International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 5, Issue 12, December 2015 450 ISSN 2250-3153
Second Author – Tejal Gath, MITCOE, Pune, Department of Fourth Author – Shubhay Kadam, MITCOE, Pune, Department Computer Science & Engineering, [email protected] of Computer Science & Engineering, Third Author – Mitali Gadam, MITCOE, Pune, Department of [email protected] Computer Science & Engineering, [email protected]
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